Jan. 7, 2017
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Competing as the anchor for Penn State on the floor exercise, sophomore Peyton Schuller (Erie, Pa.) tallied a 9.675 to a secure a first-place finish for the No. 23 Nittany Lions Saturday afternoon inside Rec Hall. The Penn State women's gymnastics team topped No. 36 BYU (194.225), Temple (191.925) and Bowling Green (190.725). BYU originally finished with a 194.525, but was deducted .300 after a video review following the meet.
"We are really happy with how we did today," head coach Jeff Thompson said. "We weren't perfect by any means, but the mistakes we made we were able to recover from pretty quickly."
As a team, Penn State won the vault, balance beam and the floor exercise, while BYU captured the uneven bars title.
Individually, junior Briannah Tsang (Vancouver, British Columbia) won titles outright on the vault (9.850) and floor exercise (9.850). She also tied for the balance beam title with a 9.825. Tsang finished the afternoon with a 39.350 to capture her sixth career all-around title.
Along with Tsang, sophomore Sabrina Garcia (Etters, Pa.) captured the uneven bars title with a career-best 9.950, which tied the No. 3 score on the uneven bars in program history.
Penn State opened the meet with a 48.650 on the vault. Tsang and Garcia paced the Nittany Lions on the opening apparatus, as Tsang finished for first and Garcia tied for the third (9.775). After an injury plagued 2016, senior Emma Sibson (Allen, Texas) made her return for the Nittany Lions. In her lone event of the day, Sibson tied for seventh on the vault with a 9.725.
The Nittany Lions then took to the uneven bars where they posted a 48.450. On the uneven bars, Garcia captured her first career uneven bars title with a career-best 9.950, Tsang added a 9.825 to tie for fourth and Nittany Lion freshman Kristen Politz (Morganville, N.J.) made her program debut with a 9.775 to tie for eighth.
The Blue & White moved to the balance beam where they tallied a 48.700 as a group. Tsang and Jovannah East of Bowling Green shared the event title as they each recorded a 9.825. Politz and sophomore Mason Hosek (Pearland, Texas) tied for third-place (9.800), while Jessica Jones (Canfield, Ohio) posted a 9.725 to tie for eighth-place.
With a tightly-contested meet heading into the final rotation, every point was going to count for both Penn State and BYU. After the third rotation, Penn State held on to a 145.800-145.300 lead over the Cougars. Penn State ended the meet with the floor exercise and the Cougars finished the afternoon on the uneven bars, which was their highest team total of the meet (49.225).
Jones led the Nittany Lions off on the floor exercise with a 9.800, which was followed by a 9.675 from Politz. Hosek went third and recorded a 9.000, Garcia went fourth and tallied a 9.825 and then Tsang was fifth with a 9.850.
Unsure if Schuller would be able compete in the event after suffering an injury earlier in the week during practice, she was called upon with the meet in the balance between Penn State and BYU.
"Peyton Schuller had sprained her ankle three days ago [in practice]," Thompson said. "So I was 100% sure she was not going to go today. She showed up and she did three minute touch and said 'Coach, I can go if you need me.' "
Schuller's routine gave her a score of 9.675, which secured a 194.625-194.525 win over BYU.
The Nittany Lions took the top three spots on the floor exercise with Tsang winning the title followed by Garcia and Jones.
Following the final gymnast, BYU asked for video review of a routine from earlier in the meet and the team was then deducted .300 points.
"If it wasn't for Peyton doing floor we would have lost the meet by about five-tenths. Her great floor routine at the end," Thompson said. "Her grit, determination to go out there and give us a 9.675 was the difference between a win and a loss."
The Nittany Lions head to Lincoln, Neb., for their Big Ten opener against Nebraska on Sunday, Jan. 15.